Pensioner billed £129,000 for broadband

The government’s unshakeable belief that it can get private enterprise to shell out for rural broadband connections has been shaken by the news that an OAP has been charged £129,000 by BT to connect her to the world wide wibble.

Beverley McCartney, of Salem, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, has wanted a broadband connection for years but been told that it could not connect her

.Last week it sent her a letter saying it could if she could help a bit with the costs. BT said it will pay £8,000 if she would come up with £129,613.54 plus VAT is paid.

McCartney wondered if there was a mistake in the decimal point so she gave them a ring and found out that other people in rural areas have bills for much more than this

.A sheepish Chris Orum of BT said there were rare cases where additional charges need to be applied because of an exceptional amount of work required to the network in order to provide service.

This means that the charges reflect the additional line plant and equipment needed to provide broadband to a particular location. However the matter must be embarrassing to the new government which is convinced that it can give the whole of Blighty broadband by leaning on its chums in the telco industry.

It is looking like they can’t, the telcos think it is fine to charge a pensioner £129,613.54.